Photo: NBC Sports Washington

The Washington Capitals head to the Music City to take on the Nashville Predators for the second time in a span of 16 days and the final meeting between the two teams this season. The Predators beat the Capitals 6-3 at Capital One Arena on New Year’s Eve and have taken the past five meetings with Washington. Action from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville is slated to begin at 8 PM Eastern on NBC Sports Washington. 

METROPOLITAN DIVISION STANDINGS

NETMINDER MATCHUP
Braden Holtby (17-10-2, 2.85 GAA, .912 sv%) starts between the pipes for the visiting Capitals. Juuse Soros (10-5-1, 2.62 GAA, .909 sv%) gets the start in goal for the Predators.

QUICK HITS

Capitals

-second of a back-to-back; lost 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues at home last night

-Captain Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 33rd goal of the season in Monday’s loss; he leads the team with 51 points in 45 games

-Defenseman John Carlson leads team with 36 assists in 44 games

-Eighth in the NHL with an average of 3.38 goals-per-game

-losers of two straight (0-1-1) after winning three consecutive games

-Red hot power-play to start the year but has dropped to 14th in the NHL (21.2% efficiency)

-Seventh-worst penalty kill in the NHL (77.5% efficiency)

-lead Metropolitan Division with 59 points, two points more than the Columbus Blue Jackets (equal number of games played between two teams)

-14-6-2 road record

-Holtby: career vs. Nashville – 3-3-1, .871 save percentage, 3.71 goals-against average in eight games

Predators

-two points behind the Winnipeg Jets (who have 60 points) for the Central Division lead with the Jets playing two fewer games

-allow the fewest goals in the NHL (2.57 goals-against average per game)

-14.6% power-play efficiency is the seventh-worst in the NHL

-Allow the fifth-fewest shots in the NHL (28.8) on average

-15-7-0 home record

-begin a three-game homestand tonight

-have lost two consecutive games

-return home from a six-game road trip (3-1-2)

-Center Ryan Johansen leads the team with 32 assists and 40 points in 47 games

-Forward Filip Forsberg leads the team with 18 goals and has four points (all goals) since returning from a hand injury, which forced him to miss 17 games

-Rinne: career vs. Capitals – 5-1-0, .910 save percentage, 2.50 goals against average in six games

More From Capitals Game Notes

-Forward T.J. Oshie is expected to play in his 700th career game tonight

-In the Capitals’ last 41 away games, dating back to Jan. 18, 2018, Washington holds a 25-13-3 record, the third-most points (53) during that time frame, and two more points than the Capitals have in their last 41 home games (23-13-5); during that span, the Capitals’ 139 goals for rank fifth in the NHL

-The Capitals are the only team in the NHL with three players that rank in the top 25 in assists per game (Carlson, 13th: 0.82 assists per game; center Nicklas Backstrom, tied for 21st: 0.77 assists per game; center Evgeny Kuznetsov, tied for 24th: 0.74) among players with at least 25 games played

Flashback Game

By Harrison Brown